MoBs beware, I can do drive-by's with a mace!
Admittedly, I'm a self-professed sucker and instant fan boy to any game that hypes itself to compete in an already dominated genre (Go Underdog!). SO I've been cheering for AoC long before it became the first-string stud.
But Here's the breakdwon:
The GREAT:
All 120 of us who played Planetside can remember massive battles against hordes of enemies in exotic continents with direct consequeces to our player, or guild, or faction. AoC's Battle Keeps seem to be a strong echo of the glory that is Massive PvP. Few things in this world are more satisfying than pummeling a small snow-hare into bloody oblivion with a spiked mace whilst horseback. But even fewer stand to compare to hurling swords into your enemies gut from afar, and slowly and gorily retrieving your blade from their ribs as they scream in agony. Beautiful.
Which brings me to my next point. The graphics are beautiful. Literally. And not in the 12x anti-aliasing 100 meter view distance video game way. They are beautiful. Take the time from your maiming and beheading (if you can) to climb a mountain, blast the setttings to full, and take in the view. Its your town's best makeout point.... x100... with 24x antialiasing... and pixel shading and bloom effects.... NO matter which mountain ( or hill or that matter) you choose to climb, the view is equally impressive. Urban sprawls are detailed, run down and opressive, the snow capped mountains are forboding, snowy, and even mountainlike, as opposed to being green pixel mounds with white pixel crud on top that seems to pass as background in most cartooney MMO's. It all seems solid, and provides an awesome distration to the problems in the game.
The animations (when they work 92% of the time) are solid and satisfying. the sound is perfectly synced to whats going on around you and each blow you land is beautifully reverberated though your speakers with an approving gush of blood, cracking of bones, or hoarse scream. (audibly, of course not literally, that'd be gross...)
And OH the soundtrack! If you have ever wished to have your own epic theme song accompany you wherever you went, this is the closest you will get; aside from hiring the London Orchestra to play Carmina Burana's 'O fortuna' for you every time you walk into work.
FATALITIES! You can decapitate and dis-member everything you fight in an animation sequence that leaves blood-splatter on your monitor. It NEVER gets old.
Throw it all together in a pot with nudity, adultery, drinking, And you come out NOT feelign like a Bad-ass womanizer in dangerous lands felling ancient beasts... then check your pulse... you might be a republican.
The BAD:
Instancing sucks. Maybe im old-school EQ, but the instancing in this game is abundant and rediculous in nature. Let me see if I can paint the picture: If a basic adventure zone is 'overpoulated', it clones itself to allow a less competitive and confontational play-time for all. No bum-rushing to the resource nodes before someone else gets there, and no out-numbering a rival group to steal their killing grounds. Furthermore, 4 guilds are allowed to own a city in a given (and designated) area. After those 4 guilds have occupied their zones, a new instance is spawned and other guilds are allowed to build their cities. So, in theory, theres hundreds of parallel universes with the exact same terrain laid out with guild cities and strongholds located in the exact same locations. To Funcoms credit, It IS well executed to the point of flawlessness, and it does, indeed, support its intention of allowing every player to actually PLAY instead of trifling with political layouts and camp-rights. But, it really robs from the involvement and escapism that I find in the MMO's fantasy setting.
So here's the issue: If I want to adventure with my friends and collaborativley collect rat pelts for copper, I want to do it without having to ask:
"what instance of this zone are you in?"
"1?"
"ok, let me re-zone."
I honestly believe it syphons from us, even if remotley, some of the interactivity we could be experiencing. Gone are days of stumbling onto fellow adventureres with the same quest, competing for sought-after resource nodes, or challenging rival guilds in the same zone for killing rights. If I'm in zone 1 and theyre in zone 2 we both missed out. It leaves the game feeling lonely and impersonal directly trading efficiency for character.
The world seems small. I can honestly say I've seen the world at lvl 40. Not exciting. But definitley room for growth on the map. Currently, there are 3 NPC cities, 3 player city zones, about 6 'adventure zones', and maybe 15 dungeons. And now, with a the most current patches, the seems to have shriveled a little more. Now It's possible to get to ANYWHERE in the game world with a few easy clicks on an NPC. Why buy a horse if I can teleport everywhere?
Mounted combat is of little use, and shaky at best. But hey! I can fight from my horse! Even if it is in a swift, drive-by, flailing nature. It's still innovative and unique if not prefectly executed. At its very least (and best at this point) it provides an adversion to the trek you'll make to some far-of adventure zones (oh wait, nothing is far off in this game). Snow-hares and badgers beware!
The Everything:
Overall, AoC is as solid as an early-state MMO can be. The Bad points are apparent and abundant, but funCOM is communicative and working diligently and quickly while patching every week. The good outweighs the bad 2:1. And if you factor in the future developments coming soon, the ratio spans further, if not exponentially. AoC is like that small local Steak Place with a great menu and service, but a smaller clientelle base, competing against McDonalds... that's, well... McDonalds.
Aoc has a strong future in it with happy customers. Even if it hasn't served 1 billion burgers to date.